Nicholson, Dinklage, and Mulligan

Nicholson, Dinklage, and Mulligan. Sounds like a law firm. Actually, it’s the surnames of principals in three older films who render amazing performances. Download (or get DVDs of) the three films below.

Jack Nicholson has been playing the celebrity role for so long that he’s become a parody of himself and triggers gag reflexes. Once upon a time, though, he was a real actor hungering for a breakthrough. He made his first film in 1958, but his career was going nowhere until he was cast as drifter George Hanson in the 1969 film Easy Rider. That one is a time warp picture and should be viewed as such, but it landed Nicholson the first of 12 Oscar nominations. Three more nominations quickly followed–and he probably should have won for Chinatown– but Jack hoisted his first statue for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975).

If you’ve never seen Cuckoo’s Nest, do so; if you have, see it again as it holds up well. It’s an adaptation of Ken Kesey’s eponymous novel, and one of the rare cases in which both book and film are masterful. Nicholson plays Randle Patrick McMurphy, a small-time punk with a long rap sheet who manages to stay out of prison by getting sent instead to a mental institution. Jack in a madhouse? They were made for each other. McMurphy isn’t nuts, just out of control, and he quickly surmises this is true for several fellow lunatics. Jack runs amok, but he misjudges Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) who keeps the lid on through a combination of cajolery and passive-aggressive blackmail. Cuckoo was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 5, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Fletcher), and Best Director (Milos Forman). Watch it also for wonderful performances from Will Sampson (“Chief”), Christopher Lloyd (Max), Brad Dourif (Billy), and Danny DeVito (Martini). This classic American film raises the question of who rules the asylum.

Hands up if you can’t imagine Game of Thrones without Peter Dinklage in the role of Tyrion Lannister. Dinklage is a Bennington College grad–something not many people know–and made his first film in 1995, but the one to watch is The Station Agent (2003). Not many people have seen it and that’s a crying shame. It’s the quintessential “small” film and that’s not a pun on Dinklage’s 4’5” frame. Some movies are slice-of-life efforts that don’t aspire to be splashy Hollywood productions. Dinklage is Finbar McBride, a quiet man who works in a model train shop owned by his friend Henry (Paul Benjamin). That is, until Henry drops dead at work and Fin is suddenly unemployed. He has no idea what to do next, until he finds that Henry has left him some property in a remote section of New Jersey. Fin arrives there to find that Henry has left him an abandoned railroad station house, his new home sweet home! Fin is a recluse who knows about trains but lacks social skills. He will eventually find himself drawn into the orbits of Joe, a verbose Cuban American food truck operator (Bobby Cannavale); Olivia (Patricia Clarkson), a klutzy divorcée artist; Emily (Michelle Williams), the town librarian; and Cleo (Raven Goodwin), an African American school girl who is curious about everything. Director Tom McCarthy, sometimes stumbles over whether the film is a comedy or a drama, but Dinklage alone turns this into a bittersweet offering that leaves us wanting more. Plus, it co-stars the vastly underrated Patricia Clarkson. Call this one small is beautiful and take that any way you wish.  

It’s no secret that Britain’s Carey Mulligan is the real deal, but take a look at An Education, a 2009 film directed by Lone Scherflig with a screenplay from Nick Hornby. You might know Hornby’s name from his coming-of-age novels. Lynn Barber actually wrote the autobiographical essay upon which An Education is based, but Hornby’s fingerprints are all over the film. Mulligan plays 16-year-old Jenny Mellor, a brilliant lass who is the apple of her English teacher Miss Stubbs’ (Olivia William) eye and is driven by her conventional (and clueless) lout of a father, Jack (Alfred Molina). Jenny is pegged by everyone as a golden girl, including awkward young Graham, who would dearly love to be her boyfriend. Then she meets David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard), who is considerably older than she. Yes, we’re talking Lolita territory here. David introduces her to his glamorous friends Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Helen (Rosamund Pike) and takes her inside a world she could only imagine. David even charms Jack and his wife. You can probably surmise that Jack is not all that he appears to be. Mulligan was 24 when she made the film, but is utterly convincing as 16-year-old full of dreams and naiveté. She also radiant, a foreshadowing of the superb career she has subsequently built. Look for Emma Thompson and Sally Hawkins in cameo roles.

Rob Weir